US to auction 29,656 bitcoins seized from Silk Road

These are only bitcoins located on Silk Road servers, not suspect's computer.

On Thursday, the United States Marshals Service posted a notice that it will be administering the sale of the over 29,600 bitcoins seized in the Silk Road case. At present exchange rates, those bitcoins are worth over $17.5 million.

Further Reading

These bitcoins resided in six different wallets found on Silk Road servers and do not include the “bitcoins contained in wallet files that resided on certain computer hardware belonging to Ross William Ulbricht, that were seized on or about October 24, 2013.”

The USMS said that the first deadline for bidders will be 9am Eastern Time on June 16, 2014.

All bidders must complete the government’s Bidder Registration Form (PDF), which requires that you provide a copy of a government-issued ID as well as a $200,000 deposit sent by wire transfer from an American bank. The government added that the highest bidder will win, and he or she cannot finance its payment in installments—the winner must pay the full amount in cash.

The USMS added one final stipulation.

“The USMS will not sell to any person who is acting on behalf of or in concert with the Silk Road and/or Ross William Ulbricht, and bidders will be required to so certify,” the USMS stated.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had previously announced that it would be selling the seized bitcoins back in January 2014.

Joshua Dratel, Ulbricht's attorney, told Ars that this auction is "designed to get maximum value for the property that was seized."

"However, I was not informed or consulted about the particular actions (and not saying I had a right to be), so I don't know the details of the decision-making as to why it happened right now," Dratel continued. "Also, noting again for clarity that Ross has filed a claim only for the bitcoins seized from his laptop (PDF), not those from the Silk Road servers."

Cyrus Farivar
Cyrus is a Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is due out in May 2018 from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California. Emailcyrus.farivar@arstechnica.com//Twitter@cfarivar